“I don’t seem to be able to,” went on Jessie’s father, as he once more scanned the paper giving an account of the raid on the missionary station. “Only the fact that my little girl may be among the savages appeals to me. Oh, if we could only rescue her!” “We will!” declared Blake, with a confidence he did not altogether feel. “We’ll get right among ’em, and if we have to scare ’em with a moving picture machine, telling ’em it’s the worst kind of witch-medicine, we’ll do it.” “If only we can influence ’em in some way!” murmured Joe. “Now as to plans,” went on Mr. Piper, who seemed ready to take practical charge of the expedition, which was likely to have a harder task before it than at first supposed. “I think that our best work can be done by going direct to Mombasa, as we figured on originally. There we can take the Uganda railroad to the Victoria Nyanza. Crossing that body of water we can get to Entebbe, and from there----” “From there we’ll have to strike into the jungle, try to locate the station at Kargos and, and then----” began Mr. Duncan. “And then find Jessie!” interrupted Joe. “And we’ll do it!” cried Blake. “My idea exactly!” declared C. C. Piper, who seemed to show no disposition to revert to his original state of gloom. “I wonder if we’ll get any chance to make moving pictures for that circus man?” mused Joe. “Not that I’m even going to think about it until we find Jessie, but----” “You’ll probably have plenty of chance,” said Mr. Piper. “The railroad journey is five hundred and eighty miles, and we can’t make it all in one day. There will be frequent stops, I expect, and on them you can make moving pictures.” “But will there be wild animals near the railroad?” asked Blake. “There certainly will,” declared the actor. “It runs right to Port Florence, on Victoria Lake, and I have often read of the trainmen seeing anything from elephants to lions along the track, for it runs through a big game preserve. Why, there is one story of a German hunter who went down on a special car on the Uganda railroad to kill a man-eating lion that had been terrorizing the natives near one of the line stations. An Englishman and an Italian were with him. The car was shunted to a siding on the railroad near where the lion had been seen. “It was hot, the Englishman sat by an open window to watch for the lion, but fell asleep. The Italian stretched out on the floor, and the German got into a bunk. The Italian was roused by a commotion, and awoke to see the lion standing on him with his hind feet, while his fore paws were on the seat where the Englishman had been. The latter was dead. “The German jumped out of his bunk directly on the lion, that leaped out of the car through a window, taking the body of the Englishman with him. I don’t know whether they got that lion or not, but if you think there aren’t any wild animals near the railroad you have another guess.” “Whew!” whistled Blake. “If it’s like that we may get pictures yet.”